TEXAS 7, ANGELS 6: Hamilton's effort against former team for naught as Halos fall to Rangers

ANAHEIM - The ending was appropriate for a team whose best-laid plans have mostly gone to waste in a still-young season.

Angels closer Ernesto Frieri threw the pitch he wanted to, a fastball on the outside corner. That just happened to be the pitch A.J. Pierzynski was swinging for.

The Texas Rangers catcher got all of it, sending a home run to the right-field bleachers and sending the announced crowd of 36,192 at Angel Stadium to the exits with a familiar feeling. Pierzynski's solo home run in the ninth inning Monday made the difference in a 7-6 Angels loss.

"I made my pitch. ... He put a good swing on the ball and it went out," said Frieri.

Even the bottom of the ninth inning couldn't go to script. The Angels had the top of their lineup due up, and leadoff hitter Peter Bourjos got on base with a single to left-center field off Rangers closer Joe Nathan.

Then Mike Trout flied out to left field, Albert Pujols stroked a line drive for another out and Mark Trumbo - whose hot bat earned him a promotion to the fourth spot in the batting order - struck out to end the game.

"There were a lot of good things on the field," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, "but it comes down to holding leads."

The Angels (7-11) took the lead twice, erasing a 2-0 deficit with a three-run fourth inning and using a three-run sixth inning to take a 6-4 advantage. They squandered the advantage both times.

The starting pitchers, Angels right-hander Joe Blanton and Texas left-hander Derek Holland, struggled and didn't figure into the decision. Holland kept the ball in the yard but allowed six runs, all earned, in 53 innings

Blanton allowed 12 hits and four runs - all earned - in six innings. He walked one and didn't strike out a batter.

Yet he was economical enough to last until the seventh inning, and was pulled only after allowing a leadoff single to Elvis Andrus.

Michael Roth was the first pitcher out of the bullpen, and he allowed a single to veteran Lance Berkman. Dane De La Rosa came on and walked Adrian Beltre to load the bases. Pierzynski drove in one run with an RBI single, narrowing the Rangers' deficit to 6-5.

Left-hander Scott Downs relieved right-hander De La Rosa, and Jeff Baker emerged from the Rangers' bench as a pinch hitter. Baker hit a chopper that bounced high off home plate. The ball landed in the heel of Downs' glove and bounced foul as Adrian Beltre slid home with the tying run. Downs was charged with an error on the play.

Would the ball have eventually trickled foul? It's a footnote lost to history.

"If (the ball) comes down soft," Scioscia said, "at home they tend to stay fair."

The final outcome overshadowed what could be a breakthrough 4-for-4 performance by Josh Hamilton, his first four-hit game with the Angels.

Hamilton batted fifth for the first time all season - a demotion by the slimmest of margins with Trumbo switching to the cleanup hole.

"I'm always OK with it," Hamilton said prior to the game. "If it was every day I'd be OK with it. I'd be happy never getting a hit again if we keep winning."

Even before Monday, Hamilton insisted, he had plenty of at-bats he could be proud of - if not any gaudy stats. He entered the week among the bottom 20 in the American League in several key offensive categories including batting average (.176), on-base plus slugging percentage (.570), wins above replacement (-0.4) and strikeouts (23).

His batting average was at .222 when the day ended. Hamilton collected four singles, including two that didn't leave the infield.

"Things are moving in the right direction," he said. "At this level, it's about consistency."

In truth, the decision was as much about Hamilton as it was Trumbo, who has at least one hit in 15 of 18 games this season, including the winning home run in the 13 th inning Sunday against Detroit.

But Trumbo finished 0 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts. When he struck out to end the game, the Angels' hottest hitter - Hamilton - was stranded on deck.